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Merdeka dengan tentera pencoroboh?

10 Foreign Warships In Malaysia For 50th Merdeka Bash

PORT KLANG, Aug 30 (Bernama) - More than 7,000 navy personnel from France, United States, Japan and New Zealand are here to share in Malaysia's 50th Merdeka celebration on Friday.

Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) Chief Admiral Tan Sri Ramlan Mohamed Ali said they arrived in 10 warships, which berthed here since Tuesday for the occassion.

"Some came on their own initiative to witness our Merdeka celebration, which is a special one this year.

"Never in history has RMN received so many warships here for the Merdeka celebration," he told reporters after a function to fete the foreign navy personnel here Thursday.

The ships which will be here until Sept 3 include the supply ship FNS VAR and patrol frigate FNS NIVOSE from France and four from the United States comprising the USS Kitty Hawk and USS Cowpens carriers and two destroyers, USS Curtis Wilbur and USS Martin.

Three others are from Japan comprising training ships JDS Kashima and JDS Shimayuki and a destroyer, JDS Sawagiri, and another is from New Zealand, the HMNZS Te Kaha.

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Anti-Malaysia protest after referee assault

JAKARTA, August 30 - Anti-Malaysia demonstrations broke out in Indonesian cities after an Indonesian referee was beaten while in Kuala Lumpur for the 8th Asian Karate Championship at the Nilai indoor stadium.

Picture left - Front Page of Jakarta Post, August 30.

In the East Java capital of Surabaya, dozens of youths conducted a sweep against Malaysian citizens at a local hotel in retaliation for the beating, which allegedly occurred at the hands of police officers.

A report by the detik.com online news service said dozens of youths went to the Garden Palace Hotel, searching for Malaysian badminton players who participated in a local competition.

Before conducting the search, the youths demonstrated outside the East Java regional legislative building, demanding the Indonesian government lodge a protest against the Malaysian police officers’ conduct.

The protestors urged the government to “immediately severe” its diplomatic ties with Malaysia and accused Malaysia of being an “uncivilised nation.”

Indonesian karate referee Donald Luther Kalapita was allegedly assaulted on Friday in Kuala Lumpur by four Malaysian police officers and had to be taken to a hospital for treatment of his injuries.

In protest against the beating, Indonesia withdrew from the karate event.

Similar anti-Malaysia rallies took place in North Sumatra’s capital, Medan, and Jakarta, where protestors demanded Kuala Lumpur apologise to Indonesia. – dpa as reported by the StarOnline

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Gül ‘an inspiration for Muslim Democrats all over the world'

Today's Zaman, Aug 23 - In the wake of the European Union's strong support for Abdullah Gül's presidential candidacy, Muslim leaders have also joined the choir in lending support to Gül. The former deputy prime minister of Malaysia and a well-respected intellectual in the Muslim world, Anwar Ibrahim, said Gül has been an inspiration for Muslim Democrats all over the world.

Praising Gül as an experienced politician and a very capable leader, Ibrahim said his leadership "has most certainly inspired a generation of Muslim democrats in Turkey and around the world."

In an interview through e-mail, Ibrahim answered Today’s Zaman’s questions:

What might the Islamic world think if Gül is elected president of Turkey?

Turkey’s progression toward democracy represents the hopes and aspirations of Muslims around the world struggling to cast away the shackles of authoritarianism and dictatorship. The resounding victory of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in the July elections reaffirmed Turkey’s commitment to this democratizing trend and sent a positive signal throughout the Muslim world that the reform agenda is a viable and attractive option to authoritarianism. We cannot predict the outcome of the nomination of Mr. Gül but it is critical that the electoral process as delineated in the Turkish constitution not be derailed by special interest or military intervention.

Do you think Turkey’s secularism will be in danger if Gül gets elected?

The underlying principles of the Turkish state have been reaffirmed by the AK Party government throughout its tenure, and the Turkish people have expressed their approval of a ruling party that is at ease both with Turkey’s secular political landscape as well as its roots in a culture tied to Islamic civilization. Therefore I see no reason to be swayed by those Islamophobes who fear an ideological onslaught by any individual or party even remotely associated with Islamic principles and values. On the contrary I believe a turning point has been reached in Turkey whereby the nation as a whole will reconcile opposing elements embedded in its national psyche and move forward in a positive direction.

There is concern among a limited number of Western politicians and intellectuals that Gül may own the Ottoman legacy and is capable of turning Turkey toward East not the West.

This fear is wholly unsubstantiated both by the pronouncements of Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Gül, and more importantly by the policies that the AK Party government has pursued in the last five years. In the last five years Turkey has taken bold and unprecedented steps toward integration with the European Union. Ironically, it is the West that has often reciprocated in a xenophobic and racist tone by shunning Turkey from the European community. Furthermore the commitment to economic and political reform demonstrated by the AK Party should confirm those who question the government’s commitment to a reform agenda that is rooted in the betterment of Turkish society.

If the military reacts again, what sort of a message will Muslims get from this reaction?

If the military intervenes, the message to the Muslim world will be clear. Democracy is a dead end. Moderates throughout the region will be marginalized and a coup in Turkey will provide ample fodder for more extreme voices calling for more radical changes in society. We must not underestimate the potential for a military intervention to undermine the work of Muslim democrats and reformers throughout the Muslim world. Today's Zaman

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Malaysia to train Thai scholars

Kuala Lumpur, Aug 21 - Malaysia will help train Thai Muslim religious teachers and provide scholarships for students in southern Thailand as part of an agreement signed between the country's two leaders aimed at curbing violence in the region.

Surayud Chulanont, the Thai prime minister, is in Malaysia on a three-day visit to secure economic help for the south of the country.

Surayud signed the deal with his Malaysian counterpart, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, on Tuesday in Putrajaya, the administrative capital of Malaysia.

According to Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia's education minister who was speaking with the national Bernama news agency, the agreement will link the two countries' education institutions especially in southern Thailand covering areas such as religious education, curriculum development and training.

More than 2,400 people have been killed in violence in Thailand's mainly Muslim south since 2004.

Most of the violence has been in provinces near Thailand's border with Muslim-majority Malaysia, and the government there is concerned it could destabilise the region.

Strong entourage

About 100 Thai educators and religious teachers are expected to be sent to Malaysia at the end of this month for training, a Thai education official who declined to be named, said.

No other details were immediately available.

Surayud is being accompanied on his visit by an entourage including his foreign, defence, education and interior ministers.

Both Surayud and Abdullah are due to fly to the northern resort island of Penang on Wednesday for a meeting expected to focus on security and economic development in Thailand's southern region.

Syed Hamid Albar, the Malaysian foreign minister, has said that the leaders were likely to discuss setting up an Islamic bank in southern Thailand, with the expertise provided by Malaysia's central bank.

He has said talks would centre on education, employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for Thailand's southern provinces, which are among the country's poorest and have long complained of discrimination by the government.

Ongoing violence

Meanwhile as the talks took place in Putrajaya, violence continued in the south of Thailand on Tuesday as three people were killed in separate attacks believed to by carried out by Muslim separatists.

An unknown number of assailants shot and killed a Buddhist man in a security guard uniform in the Waeng district of Narathiwat province, according to Prakit Meekam, a police official.

He said the attackers then attempted to behead the victim before fleeing.

In a separate incident, a Muslim man who was recently elected village chief was killed in a drive-by shooting in the Raman district of Yala province.

The predominantly Muslim provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat and some parts of Songkhla have seen the worst of the fighting since early 2004, when a separatist movement flared up after a lull of more than two decades.

Along with attacks on soldiers and police, separatists have targeted Buddhist civilians and government workers in what is believed to be an attempt to drive them from the area. Agencies

State Islam Hadhari and Welfare Committee chairman Datuk Rosol Wahid, replying to a question by Alias Abdullah (BN – Alor Limbat), said the fatwa was issued by a young PAS leader and his declaration was disseminated in a series of gatherings to the masses.

“We have all the necessary evidence in the form of recordings and written material to substantiate the fatwa issued by PAS,” the state executive councillor said.

He urged the religious department to investigate and act against the PAS leader who issued this fatwa.

Rosol said the religious department had also identified 84 mosques that had been misused by PAS leaders to preach their version of safeguarding Islam.

“They hurl all of kind of accusations and lies in their bid to disunite Muslims,” he added.

Kudus Yolu, August 11 - Ismail Haneya, Prime Minister of the PA care-taker government in Gaza said during the Friday sermon that there is a five-point scheme that aims to liquidate the Palestinian cause. He was delivering the Friday sermon at the central Mosque in Khan Younis. He said that this conspiracy, in which some Palestinian parties are taking part is based on five axes; separation between Gaza and the West Bank, tightening the siege on Gaza, eroding the legitimacy of the Hamas's elected government, destroying the infrastructure of the Palestinian resistance, especially in the West Bank and entering into security and political deals with the Zionist enemy. He stressed that these five axes have become a de facto "code of conduct" for some Palestinian, regional and international parties when dealing with the Palestinian issue. Haneyya further said that his government rejects militarization of society and having numerous security agencies, as the case was in Gaza before Hamas took over, stressing: "We do not want a police state in Gaza" He added that his government wants a strong police force, a national security agency which will protect the borders and internal security under the ministry of interior. He said that after the collapse of the PA security agencies his government took over the responsibility and managed to control the situation adding that if such vacuum took place in any other place there would have been rife chaos. Haneyya also talked about Abbas's presidential edicts and the illegal government that he set up in Ramallah and which started paying salaries to employees based on their political affiliation, denying those who disagree with it their salaries. Haneyya said that Abbas was behind the closure of Rafah pointing to the fact that the Palestinian and the Israeli delegates to U.N. agreed to oppose a draft resolution submitted by Qatar and Indonesia to reopen the crossing. "We will not surrender and the siege will not break our determination. They rely on America, we rely on Allah. They hide behind worldly powers we seek heavenly support and indeed there is a huge difference between both," Haneya said. He also said that there are serious efforts to destroy the resistance in the West Bank through some suspicious security deals with the occupation government adding that whenever the PA security arrest a person or a group they claim that the arrested people where trying to setup an executive force in the West Bank. He stressed that dialogue is the only way ahead for the Palestinians and expressed support for President Saleh's initiative. Commenting on the autumn "international conference" called for by President Bush, Haneyya said this conference will be no more than a farewell party for Bush who has achieved nothing and all his plans failed.

Kavkaz Center, Aug 10 - The leader of the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV), Geert Wilders has called for the Holy Koran to be banned in the Netherlands. He wrote in a letter to the daily Volkskrant that the Quran was a "fascist" book that incited people to violence.

In his letter Wilders' wants "to make it a crime to use the Koran in mosques and at home."

"Ban this wretched book", Freedom Party's leader declared. "Send a signal...to Islamists that the Quran can never, ever be used in our country as an "excuse or inspiration" for violence".

"Islamists are seeking to establish a pure Islamic society governed under extremely harsh interpretation of Islam. From Islamism preferred apocalyptic millennial echo of other ideology, Fascism. Islamism is a totalitarian, utopian, violent and like Fascism - expansionist movement." This is a quote of some figures from another country, Canada.

According to an editorial article in the Ottawa Citizen Newspaper dated June 5 2006, which defines Islam: "Koran is a guide to fascism and expansionism - collection of Islamist thoughts, and those who believe in it are not Muslims, they are Islamists."

According to the Koran, as Ottawa Citizen explains, "Islam is not just a religion is a way of life. (Al Imran, 3:19). Lifestyle never limited home or private life. It covers all aspects of life, private and public. The Koran emphasizes that if someone wants another way of life than Islam, it will never be accepted by them (3:85).

According to the Citizen, that is an Islamism.

Thus, a Muslim who believes and fully accepts the Holy Writ, as required by the Koran and not takes the Islam "as only a religion" and that is an "Islamist ". He the enemy of the "civilization", "freedom" and "democracy" against whom and a total war declared.

But Islam is really "not just a religion." The Koran clearly states to the believers:

"To thee We sent the Scripture in truth, confirming the scripture that came before it, and guarding it in safety: so judge between them by what Allah hath revealed, and follow not their vain desires, diverging from the Truth that hath come to thee. To each among you have we prescribed a law and an open way." (5:48)

The Koran states that God had sent the Law to the Musa (Moses) and the Gospel to Isa (Jesus), peace be upon him, and before this, as a guide for mankind, the Almighty God sent Distinction (Furqan) between Good and Evil (Koran 3:3). So, where to apply the same law as not in private and public life?

According to the anti-Islamic propagandists, Islamophobic and Shariat opponents, Muslims become "Islamists" (or as some Democrats expressed "green commissioners") if they seek to establish a "pure Islamic society", which would run under the Laws and the criteria specified in the Holy Scriptures, in the Koran.

The Koran states that if the believer does not seek to do so, it stops to be a Muslim at all:

"If any do fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed, they are (no better than) Unbelievers...they are wrong-doers." (5:44-47).

Thus, it is clear that the war declared on Islam is the declared war especially declared on the Koran, the word of God, which was heard by mankind through the last Prophet of God Muhammad (pbuh).

It is not a war for freedom and progress, not a war for civilization and peace, this a war for a way of life for mankind and the Koran in this war is a prime target for enemies of Truth.

And so Allah warns in the Koran:

"Fain would they extinguish Allah's light with their mouths, but Allah will not allow but that His light should be perfected, even though the Unbelievers may detest (it)." (9:32)

AlJazeera.net, Aug 10 - A crisis in US home loans has continued to cause turbulence in world markets despite central banks releasing tens of billions of dollars to prevent a global economic crisis.

London's FTSE stock market closed 3.71 per cent lower on Friday, with European and Asian shares also plummeting after losses tied to high-risk mortgages.

The price of oil fell for the third straight day as speculators rushed to bank profits on concerns that subprime fears will weaken energy demand.

Central banks across the world responded by pumping money into the banking system, offering loans at lower rates to commercial banks.

After years of booming house prices and cheap credit - interest rates have been historically low - the US housing market is now in reverse with loans becoming more expensive and prices falling.

Defaults and repossessions

This has caused high numbers of defaults and repossessions as borrowers, particularly high-risk subprime borrowers, struggle to keep up with their repayments.

After several weeks of turmoil on world stock markets due to the subprime crisis, fears appeared to recede earlier this week.

But on Thursday French banking giant BNP Paribas spooked the market when it said it had suspended three investment funds exposed to the US housing market because it was unable to value the assets.

A short time later the European Central Bank pumped a record 94.8 billion euros into the money supply - far more than it had injected in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks - and followed up with another 61.05 billion euros on Friday.

An analyst at the Morgan Stanley US investment bank, adding that "the European financial system is facing a serious but not catastrophic crisis".

US liquidity injection

The Federal Reserve for its part pumped $35 billion into the US banking system and said it was ready to inject more if necessary.

Before Wall Street opened, the Fed infused $19 billion in a market operation that was conducted more than an hour before its usual time.

It also took the unusual step of making a statement after the first operation - the first time it's done so since the September 11, 2001 - in an attempt to calm investors' fears.

By late morning, $16 billion had been injected in a second market operation - an unusual occurrence for a Friday.

The last time the Fed conducted two operations on a Friday was more than two years ago.

US stock indexes sharply cut their morning losses after the Fed's second liquidity injection, which occurred shortly before 1500 GMT.

At midday, the Dow Jones industrial average briefly turned higher and then dipped in volatile trading. Both the Standard & Poor's 500 index and the Nasdaq Composite Index achieved modest gains after 1600 GMT, reversing their earlier slide.

In its statement after Friday's first market operation, the Fed said it would provide liquidity as needed "to facilitate the orderly functioning of financial markets.

World Market slide

Several other central banks around the world pumped lesser amounts into their banking systems.

But stock markets continued to slump across the world, with volatile US markets moving sharply lower before rebounding in midday trade.

"It's that unnerving effect of the unknown which is spooking investors at the moment," Henk Potts of Barclays Stockbrokers in London said.

Banking stocks were among the worst hit.

The human face of the current financial crisis is likely to be a low-earning American, possibly someone who took on a mortgage they could ill-afford and whose mortgage broker did inadequate checks on their ability to repay.

The link between these people and turmoil in financial markets involves much financial trickery that enabled banks and funds all over the world to make investments that are essentially bets on borrowers repaying their mortgages.

Banks are now setting aside cash as a precaution against further losses from their bad investments and have become far more cautious about lending.

This is known as a "credit squeeze," but the fear is that this could become a veritable "credit crunch" in which companies and consumers have inadequate access to loans.

A shortage of liquidity would restrict the ability of companies, and eventually consumers, to borrow, potentially slowing economic growth worldwide. Agencies

BUKIT MERTAJAM, Aug 4 (Bernama) - Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today emphasised that Malaysia is not a secular nor a theocratic state but a country that practises parliamentary democracy.

He said the government in this country practised elements of government that reflected the composition of its population which was made up of various races and religion.

"We are not a secular state. We are also not a theocratic state like Iran and Pakistan which PAS wants us to be, but we are a government that is based on parliamentary democracy," he told reporters after launching a programme with the people at the Tuanku Bainun Teaching Institute, here.

He said the existing government was a responsible one whether to the people or country and administered together by leaders from all races and religions under the Barisan Nasional coalition.

"We (the government) consist of leaders from the various religions -- Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity -- and everyone is involved in discussions to reach a consensus on national development policies," he said.

The Prime Minister said the formula adopted had been proven to be capable of driving the country towards development for the past 50 years.

"That is our country that has developed according to our own formula which has been tested for the past 50 years and has already succeeded today," he said.

Abdullah said he failed to see how such a government could not continue to progress in future, that is up to its 100th independence anniversary.

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Raja Petra?

Raja Nazrin: Those With Shady Past Shouldn't Be Leaders

KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 (Bernama) - Those with a chequered past or clear evidence of questionable morality should be prevented from taking office, Perak Raja Muda Raja Nazrin Shah said Tuesday.

He said this was integral to good governance, one of the three major themes of the works of the late Prof Syed Hussein Alatas, a renowned sociologist and intellectual.

"Figures in authority must be chosen for their integrity first and qualifications second," he said during his inaugural lecture to commemorate the legacy of Prof Syed Hussein Alatas entitled "Towards a Decent Social Order for All Malaysians", at the Islamic Arts Museum here, Tuesday.

He said the battle against corruption had always been top priority for Prof Syed Hussein, who published four books on the topic from as early as 1968.

Raja Nazrin said corruption was mankind's most deadly social disease, as it could undermine good governance, weaken institutional foundations, distort public policy, compromise the rule of law and constrain the economy.

He said corruption curbed competitiveness to the detriment of economic and social development, led to tremendous misallocation of resources, and made the cost of doing business become unacceptably high.

"Corruption exists because of man's enduring desire for personal gain.

"Once corruption becomes widespread, it will no longer seem immoral and unlawful - just business as usual," he said.

He said there must be concrete anti-corruption measures and management practices based on efficiency, transparency and accountability. more in Bahasa